Environmental Benefits

The environmental benefits of biomass power generation – using biomass fuel – are clear. By using waste material for fuel in our green energy plants, we prevent that waste from burdening our landfills even more, or being left to decay on the forest floor or urban lot.

In fact, our two recycling facilities in New Hampshire reuse or recycle an average of 80 percent of construction and demolition materials that they receive.

On the whole, our industry diverts more than 30 million tons of organic waste from waste streams each year and turns it into reusable materials.

Biomass power (biopower) – which makes up about 4 percent of the power generation capacity of the United States – is clean energy that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by more than 15 million tons a year, according to the Biomass Power Association.

The view outside our Lyonsdale, NY, facility.

Biomass Power is Carbon Neutral

Biomass power is carbon neutral. Any carbon that is released into the atmosphere during combustion of biomass was absorbed from the atmosphere at one point in the tree’s life – so what it took out ends up going back. In many cases, the carbon released is re-absorbed by another plant so it never reaches the atmosphere in the first place.

With fossil fuels, the carbon released during combustion has been inaccessible to the atmosphere for millennia and therefore adds additional carbon to the atmosphere.

Biomass power does not threaten forests. It is not economically viable to clear forests or chop down trees solely for the purpose of getting wood to create the green power. The only economically viable fuel for biomass facilities comes from waste byproducts, including construction and demolition and waste wood, that from other industries.

ReEnergy Holdings’ business also helps the environment. Two core components of the company, Epping and Salem, provide more than just fuel for biomass power plants. They close the recycling loop, accepting and processing a wide variety of waste products and materials and recycling them for reuse in a variety of industries.